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Introduction to Public
Relations Campaigns
Mark Sheehan
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While situations and circumstances will vary from campaign to campaign, as you will
read in later case studies, there are some essential elements common to all public
relations campaign planning.
The Golden Target awards from the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA)
recognise campaigns conducted by public, corporate and consultancy practitioners.
The criteria for these awards outline the common elements necessary in planning a
successful campaign. These criteria are broadly employed in the case study below.
Renewing a reputation
Jenny Ross has been employed by the local council as the Public Relations Manager for
the Council Performing Arts Centre (CPAC). Also new to CPAC is the Artistic Director,
Stefan Orlowski. Stefan has dropped into Jennys office to talk about the first CPAC
production for the new performing year.
Look Jenny, the previous season was a dismal failure. The plays were unpopular and
poorly produced. CPACs reputation is at rock bottom, Stefan says.
Jenny nods in agreement. The subscriber base of 2500 is holding, but were going to
need a real hit to hang on to them this season, Stefan.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGNS
In the rest of this case study about CPAC, we lay out the steps a practitioner may go
through in planning a campaign. Included in this plan are rationales for each step
undertaken by the practitioner. The other case studies in this book provide further
examples of campaign planning and will enlarge your understanding of this most
important public relations activity.
1 Problem statements
Problem (or opportunity) statements identify a target public, and state both the
problem and the reason for the problem. Jenny must state communication problems
and opportunities that can be solved using public relations tactics, for example:
Patrons view CPAC as likely to produce disappointing plays because they have either
attended or heard about one or more of the past years poor productions.
Few patrons plan to attend the new production, because they believe that it is likely
to be a disappointment.
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2 Research
Jenny must now contemplate the research she needs to undertake to plan the campaign.
She would most likely divide her pre-campaign research into secondary and primary.
In this instance, Jenny has started with desk (or secondary) research. She will
undertake an analysis of organisational materials, library research, research of online
databases, the internet and so forth. This research may provide her with information
on all aspects of the CPAC campaign, plus any relevant economic, social or regulatory
issues, and current information regarding target publics.
Jenny has also broadly examined existing sources relating to contemporary theatre,
the previous reviews of Freedom and media reaction to its debut. Existing CPAC files
allow her to analyse subscriber demographics, psychographics and attitudes.
Now Jenny wants to gather primary data. She interviews Stefan to get more
information on his experience of staging Freedom overseas. She also considers
undertaking some qualitative research using focus groups to:
1 define target publics
2 unearth information to help develop a range of questions for subsequent formal
quantitative questionnaire construction
3 test effectiveness of planned key messages.
Jenny also decides to undertake primary quantitative research that would involve
a method of random sampling (for example random telephone sampling) to help
establish a baseline of the subscribers attitudes/behaviours regarding the subject of
her plan.
This baseline allows Jenny to undertake evaluative research. At evaluation points
duringand particularly afterthe campaign, the baseline can be measured against
changes in target publics opinions or behaviours. It will help her measure the success or
otherwise of her campaign.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGNS
existing subscribers
potential subscribers
theatre reviewers
local media.
Jennys key target public are the existing subscribers. Her secondary research, from
existing files, has told her that the subscribers are males and females, predominantly
aged eighteen to thirty, who reside in the inner-city area. Most are university students
or workers in their first jobs, one to three years out of university.
Jennys primary research focus groups, based on the above subscriber profile,
revealed the following:
Subscribers respond to the latest thingsuch as restaurants, cafs and bars that
have a reputation for being fashionablethen abandon them when the next latest
thing comes along. They are beginning to believe that, following the recent run of
disappointing plays, CPAC has had its day.
CPACs subscribers are social liberals, sympathetic to Indigenous, GLBT (gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transsexual) and environmental issues. They see themselves as innercity sophisticates, tuned in to international trends in music, art and fashion.
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So, given the two problems facing CPAC, Jennys objectives will be something like the
following:
1 To convince 75 per cent of the 2500 subscribers that the new play is distinct from
and better thanthe past years disappointing productions, and to have done so a
week before Freedom opens; the achievement of this objective will be measured by
a random sample telephone survey undertaken seven days before the play opens.
2 To convince 15 per cent of the subscribers to attend opening night and a further
50 per cent to attend the balance of performances over the scheduled two-week
run of the play (the achievement dates will obviously line up with the performance
dates of the play); the achievement of this objective will be measured by monitoring
ticket sales.
Note how the objectives flow out of the problems on a one-for-one basis and are
focused on the target public. Also note that Jenny must make a reasoned guess at what
percentage of the target public she will, in practical terms, be able to convince.
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6 Evaluation
Although Jenny will have already provided deadlines and identified means of
measurement for objectives, this segment allows Jenny to expand on the rationale for
the selected measurement.
She may need to consider the relative merits of quantitative as opposed to qualitative
surveying. Remember, in this scenario one of the objectives called for random sample
telephone surveying (quantitative) for evaluation. While sufficient time needs to be
allowed to construct quantitative surveys, they have the advantage of providingvia a
relatively small samplean accurate indication (within the set margin for error) of the
views of a large population.
As discussed earlier, another benefit of this approach is the ability to compare results
against the baseline of target public attitudes obtained at the research stage. Jenny
will be able to see what level of impact her campaign had on the total population of
subscribers. Note that, over the course of a lengthy campaign, a number of quantitative
tracking surveys may be used to enable the public relations practitioner to alter the
frequency or distribution of tactics.
Then again, sometimes qualitative surveying may be more appropriate where an
indicative snapshot of attitudes is required (for example intercept surveying) or where
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REFERENCES
Grunig J. E., 1992, Toward a philosophy of public relations in Toth E. L. & Heath R. L.
(eds), 1992, Rhetorical and Critical and Approaches to Public Relations, LEA,
Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 7488
Harrison K., 2006, Strategic Public RelationsA Practical Guide to Success, 5th edn,
Palgrave Macmillan, South Yarra, Vic.
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